Menu

From "Citizen Budget" to Participatory Budgeting in Egypt

Every year since 2014, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) releases a Citizen Budget, with the co-operation of World Bank, UNICEF, UN-Women and NGOs.  

Description

A Citizen Budget is a booklet that provides a brief explanation of the policy adopted, the idea is to be understood by as large of the segment of the population as possible as it is supposed to be a nontechnical presentation

 

The aim, with the Citizen Budget is to strengthen residents' confidence in political decisions and ensure fair and efficient Public Financial management. Indeed, transparency is a way to decrease corruption and improve economic and social development indicators. Every year’s Citizen Budget is the most important reports on the international financial transparency assessment of Egypt.

 

 

Moreover, Egypt’s concern for transparency is the reason why Egypt often submitted to the Open Budget Survey (OBS) set up by the International Budget Partnership biennial which is the only independent, comparative, and regular assessment of budget transparency, public engagement, and accountability in the world.

 

In addition to these initiatives, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform, and municipal authorities in Alexandria will introduce Participatory Budgeting process for next year 2020/2021 budget. The slogan of the next budget will be “Budget for human and economic development”. The experimentation will take place in Alexandria and the initiative would include a number of civil society representatives from Alexandria and members from political parties in discussions on national and municipal projects listed in the state’s budget, and solicit their opinions on budgeting priorities. The aim behind this Participatory Budgeting is to increase citizen participation and to raise public and decision maker’s awareness.

                                                                                                                                            

More information:

https://www.internationalbudget.org/open-budget-survey/results-by-country/country-info/?country=eg

https://wwww.dailynewssegypt.com/2019/10/17/egypt-to-apply-participatory-budgeting-in-fy-2020-21-finance-ministry-official/

Citizen Budget 2018/2019 http://www.mof.gov.eg/MOFGallerySource/English/PDF/Brochure_En_3-1-2019.pdf